August brought me my last two triathlons of the season. August 1st was the Ripon Medical Center Triathlon in Green Lake, and August 8th was the Oshkosh Triathlon in Winneconne. So yea, Ripon tri in Green Lake, and Oshkosh tri in Winneconne... The RMC triathlon is a smaller triathlon, not part of the Midwest Sporting Events Series, yet still a very well run, pretty fun course, and well worth it being my fourth year of participation. The course is moderately challenging, with a little longer swim than usual, around a third-mile with no touching the bottom, a rolling to hilly, twisty at times, 15.5 mile bike course, finished with a hilly 5k run.
Leading up to this race, well... Friday included a hard-effort 50ish miler in a driving downpour. A nice character building ride with cyclocross on the horizon. Saturday morning was another CK sponsored time trial, this one a two lapper, for a total of 20.3 miles all-out. Did pretty well with the TT, was happy with how I felt and with my results. Feeling really comfortable and happy with my TT position lately. I feel fast, I feel powerful, I feel slippery. Plugging along through the course, tucked down on the aero-bars, I actually do feel the aero advantage. It's a swell feeling. Later Saturday night, I had my High School reunion... So night before a race, instead of relaxing, and hydrating, and going to bed on time, I was standing around, getting my brains blown out by unnecessarily loud music, drinking beer, and going to bed waaay too late...
RMC TRI- Race day... Got kind of winded on the pre-ride... Got even more winded on the pre-run, and my arms were sore as heck on my swim warm up... Shit. Into the lake we go, I find a good stroke, a good pace and start hitting it. Actually didn't feel too bad, so I went with it. Drafting behind suckers for as long as I could, till my long arms started feeling their toesies and I'd go around them. I was indeed the 8th person out of the water, a good swim. Onto the bike. Exiting the 'Ripon Medical Center grounds' to get out to hwy 23 actually consists of about a 2 mile climb, which right out of the water, trying to get your breathe, kind of hurts. So I had decided prior that I would spin up it in the little ring, and then start blasting once out onto the open road. Spinning along up the hill, I was getting passed. I stayed calm and thought, I'll see you guys soon. Out onto road, hammer-time. I quickly dispatched the guys who got me up the hill, and was off to find the 7 who got out of the water before me. I felt GOOD. I was fast, I was smooth, attacking up hills, out of saddle sprinting out of turns, I was killing it. Turns out, my bike leg moved me up to 2nd place overall. Then came the run. The 3rd and 4th place guys came out of transition right with me, seemed like it was going to be a great race! Then my legs decided to go home. Hardly a couple hundred yards into the run, BOOM, my legs exploded. They felt like cement. Like from my pelvis down, I had nothing. Shit. So what do I do?? I wanted to walk. My legs were that gone, I could barely move them. But as I'm hobbling along, I just think, "Geez I'm in like 5th place, I can't walk! How terrible would that look?!" So with something slightly less terrible looking than walking, I painfully labored my way, for what felt like an eternity to the finish line, being passed a few more times along the way... Good swim, Great bike, topped off with what felt like the worst 5k of my life. But in a slightly ridiculous twist of fate, thanks to my swim and bike, still pulled off an 8th overall place and won my agegroup! haha
Gonna need a little better prep for Oshkosh I think...
OSHKOSH TRI- A race I have had success with in previous years, being better than previous years, I wanted to destroy this course. Plain and simple. Last tri of the season, and from as far as I could tell, could wrap up my agegroup ranking for the five-star series, I had lofty goals for this race. First place in my agegroup - top ten overall - and improve on my time last year from a 1hr 14min to a 1hr 10min, were the goals on the chalk board. Driving up there, my goals didn't look good... The race didn't look good... Thunderstorming, pouring buckets the whole drive up there, gave me a very empty feeling in my stomach. But upon arriving, still plenty of rain, but no lightning made it look like we'd be racing. Game back on! All of my stuff in transition, my bike, and of course I, was soaked. But oh well, so was everybody else, and they'd all have to deal with it too. RACE ON! Into the lake, water was actually calm and really nice and warm, didn't feel like a superstar, but did what I could and had a fairly solid swim. Onto the beach, into transition, the moment I'd been waiting for, training for. The bike leg. However I knew I couldn't just go out and crush it, I had to race it smart this day, which sucks for only 15 miles, but with as wet as the roads were, the swirling winds, and with as many twists and turns as there are throughout the course, I knew I had to be careful or I'd end up on my butt. So the plan: little to no risks taken through turns and obliterate the straights. Immediately into it, I knew it was a good plan, as I babied around the first 90 degree turn and heard a huge crash, glanced behind me to see a guy and his bike sliding off the road... No problems for this gentleman though, I took it easy on the turns, and the rest of the time went like hell. I felt good. The head-wind from every direction never really made me feel great, but I was fast. Battling with and eventually dropping a guy on a $10k bike feels good. Onto the run, legs don't fail me now! Out of transition, College was there cheering for me, and yelling to me my overall position "You're in 5th!!!!!" (huge props to Mr. Marchewka for coming out and spectating, I sincerely appreciated him being there!) This day my legs felt good for the run. Good enough to keep up with the guys who got by me, apparently not, but I ran my fastest 5k of the season, and did all I could do. They were just faster runners than me. Crossing the line, I knew I did a good race, it felt good. Saw the clock, I saw the magic 1hr 10min I was shooting for. Sweet. Turns out the 2nd place guy overall was in my agegroup, so I got 2nd. I'll take it. Sweet. A strong later wave finisher knocked me from 10th overall, back to 11th overall. Not quite a top ten, but I'll take it. Sweet.
So I suppose these two snigglets are there to give me motivation for next year? Oh yeah, Oshkosh, I'll be back next year, you better believe it.
CONCLUSIONS-This was easily my most successful season of triathlon racing. I was in the mix at probably all but one race. I'd said early on I was probably done with tri's after this season, due to my new love affair with mountain biking. BUT, I think there is always going to be at least a little time devoted to triathlons. Probably not a full season again, but I think I'll come out and kill a couple of my favorites. So that's that.
Furthermore, in these last two races. I don't generally toot my horn, but... The bike is strong. At RMC, out of the 200 or so, I was the 4th fastest on two wheels, essentially tied for 2nd, we were all within 10sec. And at Oshkosh, out of 800, I was the 5th fastest. How about them apples?
Cyclocross, here I come.... :)
No comments:
Post a Comment